It’s amazing what you can do in a relatively short period of time. When I started blogging, I really had no idea what I might achieve. I knew that people like Daisy Christodoulou and Tom Bennett had made a huge success of using social media to vent their frustration, and I knew I had a bunch of frustrations of my own I wanted to write about. But beyond that was simply a big blank sea of possibility. I’d run websites before to share stuff with people I knew. I’d even set up a class blog. I’d had a Twitter account which I set up when Twitter was simply IT geeks tweeting about their breakfast. So I some rough idea what I would have to do. So, here are my top tips for blogging about education. 1)Decide what you want to say, and name your blog accordinglyIf you want to blog about your life as a teacher, go ahead. If you want to blog about your subject, put its name in your blog. But if you want to challenge the status quo and make a difference, think about what you want to say and find a name which reflects your core ideas.

I had a very good idea about my core thesis. My experience, research and considered opinion – which still isn’t shared by many people (yet) - is that school adds a relatively small percentage onto what a child brings to school. Most schools add about the same amount, so for most children it doesn’t matter terribly much which school you go to. Schools are the icing on the cake in a child’s life. So I called my blog Icing On The Cake, and I’ve been expanding my ideas since I began in February 2014. Tom Bennett called his blog Behaviour Guru, Daisy Christadoulou called hers The Wing to Heaven. Behaviour Guru is self-explanatory, but Daisy’s is a quote from Shakespeare’s Henry VI Part II, “And seeing ignorance is the curse of God, Knowledge the wing wherewith we fly to heaven”. As you read Daisy’s blog, you understand the thought behind the title. I like that. 2)Use Twitter to promote your blogs Before I started writing about education, I barely tweeted anything at all. I’ve sent less than 20 tweets from my original account. I used it to follow others, and it seemed presumptuous to offer an opinion via a tweet. All that changed when I began my blog. I set up a new Twitter account which I used to advertise the blog. I picked up a small number of followers early on, and it wasn’t until I began writing about Ofsted and RAISEonline that my Twitter numbers began to jump upwards in steps of more than one a day. 3)Interact with interesting Tweeters, read and comment on their blogs I have @learningspy to thank for my first big increase in followers, when he tweeted my ‘Raiseonline is Contemptable Rubbish’ post in March 2014. A combination of an eye-catching headline and me tweeting things at him clearly persuaded David Didau to read my blog, and his retweets of the post quadrupled my followers in a 24 hour period. To find interesting blogs, either find lists on writer’s own sites (@learningspy, for example) or use the simply incredible Echo Chamber, run by Andrew Old and friends, which tracks every UK education blog, as well as some based elsewhere. Use Twitter lists such as those compiled by UKEdChat or Teacher Toolkit to find interesting Tweeters. 4)Write regularly I initially set myself a target of writing something every week, and I decided to call them ‘articles’ rather than blog posts, as they were quite long pieces. Six months in, once I’d created a fairly solid presence, I dropped down to an article every two weeks. This was also partly because I wanted to comment more on other people’s posts, and also because I was having more discussions on Twitter with interesting people. I was also being asked to write for other people, and that meant I had less time for writing my own articles. A year in, I’m writing very regularly elsewhere, and I’ve changed the way I use my blog entirely. I now write as and when I like, as well as writing ongoing series of posts which link together. I still use Twitter a lot to interact with people and I tend to read and retweet a lot of material about education data, or which uses education data to under pin research reports and papers. 5)If people ask, try to say yes I’ve been asked to contribute to books, speak at conferences, write book reviews, write cover stories, write a book, offer an opinion and review research, amongst other things. Whilst most of these are tangentially related to my core Icing on the Cake thesis, they are enjoyable, interesting and challenging to boot. 6)Go to conferences and say hello I’ve really enjoyed getting out and about to ResearchEd, Northern Rocks and the Festival of Education. Meeting engaged teacher folk, many of whom I read a great deal, is a rare pleasure. Even if I don’t agree with everyone – how could you? – engaging with other teacher-writers is some of the best CPD I’ve had. So, here are some useful lists: On Twitter, listen in and contribute to regular weekly Twitter chats:#primaryrocks - Primary focused Education chat - Mondays 8pm #asechat - Association for Science Education - Mondays 8pm#senchat– All things special needs - Tuesdays 8pm#mathschat- Maths teachers - Wednesdays 8pm#ukedchat - The main UK education live chat - Thursdays 8pm#NQTchat - Newly qualified teachers - Thursdays 8pm#NUTchat- union related discussions - Sundays 6pm#sltchat– senior leadership discussion - Sundays 8pm Of course, you can use these hashtags to read what was discussed any time you like, and the following hashtags are used throughout the week:#scichat- ongoing science teacher discussions #edtechchat- technology and education discussions#langchat- language teacher discussions#STEM- science, tech, engineering and maths 7)Finally, make your voice heard The explosion in social media has open up a fantastic new channel for teachers to broadcast their ideas. From the wonderful insight into life as a parent provided by Nancy Gedge to the scathingly frank writings of Disappointed Idealist, to the wonderful resources compiled by Amjad Ali and prolific outpourings of David Didau, to the life of a teacher typified by Emma Hardy, social media has given teachers a voice as never before. If you have something you want to say, now is the perfect time to say it.

Also the Local Schools Network - I'm banging the drum for this site, obviously.

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Jack Marwood

6/7/2015 03:19:06 pm

Thanks Janet - yep, the Local Schools Network is great use of social media, and one I hope everyone reading this reads!

Reply

Jan

6/7/2015 08:10:28 am

Thank you for such an informative post. I was particularly interested in your 'core thesis', “...that school adds a relatively small percentage onto what a child brings to school." Most of the research I've read on this supports your view and suggests that the most significant influence on children's school success is family support and encouragement, regardless of social class. In your quest to spread your viewpoint and influence others I think the historical background and context is hugely important. An example I'd offer is the ever present movement to 'bring back' grammar schools. Whenever this particular topic pops up one or two famous worthies, probably in their 60s by now, are wheeled out to say how they owe everything to their grammar school education, that it offered them the opportunity to rise above their working class backgrounds. Less than a third the population in England passed the 11+, so in effect those pupils were assumed to be the most academically bright yet most left school at 15+ and only 25% went on to HE. I always want to ask those who urge a return to some form of selective education on what evidence do they base their view that grammar schools were so amazing in adding value. In fact theses schools took those judged to be academically able and then added very little.

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Jack Marwood

6/7/2015 03:40:19 pm

Thanks for this Jan.

You are quite right about the surprising amount of misinformation about grammar schools. Currently, they are bastions of privilege of course, but they were never particularly welcoming or transformational for the disadvantaged (http://www.localschoolsnetwork.org.uk/2015/03/eleven-grammar-school-myths-and-the-actual-facts/).
The Crowther report in particular (http://www.educationengland.org.uk/documents/crowther/crowther1-01.html) should make for uncomfortable reading for anyone claiming that grammars helped the 'clever working class' - the numbers who managed to get academic qualifications were very small and the 25% of Grammar school attendees who went to HE only included 1%-2% of the 'working class' children attending grammars.
Those poor children who did achieved educational success in the immediate post war era often had education-positive parents whose own educational opportunities had been severely limited (the school leaving age was 14 pre-war) and who would in all likelihood have supported their children through whatever school their children attended.
Either way, it's a good point - many people make often simplistic assumptions about the massive changes in the immediate post war period, in which many people made huge leaps forward as new opportunities presented themselves ;-) Schools were, once again, the icing on the cake.

Love this Jack. At the Festival of Education I talked with teachers about blogging, to sound out what obstacles are in the way. The result? My summer eGuide to "Choose & Follow 5 Educator Blogs (in just 5 minutes)." This was actually used in a TeachFirst training session a couple of weeks ago and the lady who ran it said; "Thank you so much for this - it is incredible! So much more than we could have produced in our team. It is so kind of you so thank you for sharing your knowledge." Your grammar school debate is interesting. I was selected into grammar and that school got me the qualifications and awards that made my parents proud but, really?, all I ever wanted was some conversation about what we were doing. I had questions that I'd learnt to silence because, in the process of doing the all the learning, I'd learnt to believe that all of was was given to me was necessary for me to have a successful future. When will schools will be seen as what they really are? School are buildings, for educational purposes. When will we move away from 'types of school' debates and lift education into the hands of teachers? By following teacher blogs I've seen a life and level of reflection on education that I'd always hoped existed as a student. These are the conversations I so wanted to be part of as a student. Keep blogging!

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Steve

8/7/2015 09:55:03 am

Most edu blogs are lazy thinking and predictable

Yours succeeds because it uses evidence to undermine long-held edu-establishment views around data etc that many have long known are wrong, but haven't had the time, energy or specific knowledge to address.

Your posts, along with comments from Phil Moriarty around data / Ofsted and RUBBISH online, should have been met with a decent response from Ofsted and school leaders alike. Yet it looked like lip-service to me, more and more so as time passes.

Mention these things to your own managers who should know what they're doing with data and they just look at you like a dog that's been shown a card trick or give you the Nigel Tuffnell "but these go to 11" face.

So many people should have picked up your comments and acted. I often fear that nothing will ever happen to correct matters as too many people have it too easy and stand to lose too much if they admitted it.

But keep it up Jack, it's good to read anyway

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Me?
I work in primary education and have done for ten years. I also have children
in primary school. I love teaching, but I think that school is a thin layer of icing on top of a very big cake, and that the misunderstanding of test scores is killing the love of teaching and learning.